(1) Wisconsin law requires an officer or member of a union who makes a
lobbying communication on the union’s behalf on more than four days in
a reporting period to be licensed and authorized as a lobbyist if the
union reimburses the member’s employer for the individual’s wages for
the time spent in lobbying activities; and

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official not, while the individual
continues to serve, enter into an agreement for employment with a lobbyist or
with an organization that employs a lobbyist. An official may, however, short
of receiving or accepting a promise of future employment, explore possibilities
for and circumstances of future employment or business relationships.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator and spouse may accept the offer of
free membership in a not-for-profit organization that is not a lobbying
principal as long as there is no benefit from membership apart from receiving
the organization’s newsletter and membership cards of unexceptional value.

The Ethics Board advises that a member of the legislature may authorize a
company to use the legislator’s name and likeness in advertising tours that
would include a meeting between the legislator and tour members, but
recommends that a legislator permit this only so long as the legislator
neither solicits nor accepts a campaign contribution or anything of
substantial value from the company or individuals affiliated with it and that
the company and individuals affiliated with it do not furnish campaign contribution

The Ethics Board advises that a lobbying principal not give or sell its sports
stadium luxury box tickets to an elective state official, candidate for elective
state office, state agency official, or legislative employee.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator should not authorize an
organization to draw on the title and prestige of the legislator’s state
government office to solicit financial contributions if the organization [1] is a
lobbying principal that tries to influence legislation and spends money in
support of or in opposition to candidates for election to state offices, or [2] is
an organization with which the legislator is associated.

The Ethics Board advises that, under §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes, a county
board supervisor should not simultaneously be a member of a county task
force established to recommend the feasibility of the county’s building a
proposed facility and hold an interest or option to purchase an interest in a
company seeking to operate that facility if it is built.

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official may not accept
compensation, or any other thing of pecuniary value, for serving on the board
of directors of a business corporation that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
another corporation that is a lobbying principal if the corporate parent
controls the official’s selection to the subsidiary’s board.

The Ethics Board advises that a not-for-profit foundation not furnish an
annuity to the director of a state agency in response to its concern about the
director’s level of compensation and retirement benefits.

The Ethics Board advises that an organization that employs a lobbyist may
(1) neither directly pay reimbursement of expenses to a member of its board
of directors who is an agency official under the lobbying law (2) nor arrange
for another organization to pay expenses arising from the official’s activities
as a member of the organization’s board.

A village trustee should not participate in the discussion, consideration, or
vote on a proposal to ban or regulate a business activity in the village in
which the trustee is engaged unless the trustee can demonstrate that the
trustee's official actions will not result in a substantial financial gain, or
avoidance of a substantial financial loss, for the trustee's business.

Each independent chapter of a network of organizations that spends more
than $500 in a year to employ a lobbyist must separately register as a
lobbying principal if its lobbyist makes lobbying communications on at least
five days in a six-month reporting period. If the network (1) has articles or
other written agreement of association; (2) has officers, directors, or others
who jointly direct the association’s activities; and (3) the lobbyist does not
take direction from any one chapter or combination of chapters other than

Except in the uncommon instance in which the teacher's appointment is for a
specified term or at the pleasure of the appointing authority, a public school
teacher is not a local public official covered by §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes.

The Ethics Board advises that §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes, does not empower
a county to amend its ethics code to require officials and employees whose
duties involve oversight, regulation, or reporting with respect to campaigns
for county office to identify the campaigns in which the official or employee is
involved, together with a description of the involvement.

Apart from the limited exceptions contained in §19.56(3), Wisconsin Statutes,
the Ethics Board advises that a judge either not partake of free food and
drink not available to the general public or pay the higher of the fair value of
such food and drink or the ticket cost of the event.

(1) That a state public official not accept compensation from the official's
private clients for time spent serving as a state public official on a task force
created by the Legislature to investigate and report on tax issues affecting
the industry of which the clients are a part; and

that a member of a municipality’s governing body who lives in an
unsewered subdivision may, consistent with §19.59, Wisconsin
Statutes, participate in a decision whether to require the
extension of water and sewer service to all existing and future
development in the municipality.

The Ethics Board advises that a lobbying principal include in its semiannual
report to the Ethics Board the time an individual, who is not a
lobbyist, spends on the principal’s behalf participating, and preparing to
participate, on a committee established by a state agency to formulate
recommended changes to state statutes.

While serving as a member of Wisconsin’s legislature, a candidate for
Congress may accept a campaign contribution from a lobbyist or lobbying
organization for the purpose of promoting the legislator’s candidacy for
election to Congress only during the year of the Congressional election
between June 1 and the date of the general election and only if the
Wisconsin Legislature has concluded its final floorperiod and is not in
special or extraordinary session.

(1) that neither the Ethics Code nor lobbying law restrict an individual from
running for a partisan elective state office nor establishing a personal
campaign committee for the individual’s candidacy while the individual
is a full-time appointed state public official;

A lobbying principal should not report in its Statement of Lobbying Activities
and Expenditures the time and money it has spent on developing and airing
television commercials that do not urge members of the general public to try
to influence legislation or administrative rulemaking.

Agency officials may participate in a trip to a foreign country if the trip is
authorized by the agency as an undertaking on behalf of the state and
primarily for the state’s benefit and the agency officials travel as the state’s
representatives.

The Ethics Board advises that a state public official associated with a state
agency (1) not invest in a privately owned company unless the investment
opportunity has been offered independent of the official’s public position and
(2) not use information gained through the official’s public position, that is
not available to the public, or has not been made public, as a substantial
basis for the official’s personal investment in a privately owned company.

The Ethics Board recommends that a state public official neither (1) hire or
promote as an employee of the official’s government office, nor (2) advocate
the office’s employment or promotion of, nor (3) exercise jurisdiction,
supervision, or direction over the official’s spouse.

The Ethics Board advises that Wisconsin’s lobbying law does not prohibit the
appearance of a lobbyist’s name as the treasurer of a political action committee
on letterhead transmitting a campaign contribution to a member of the
legislature.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator not accept from a local government
that is a lobbying principal reimbursement of expenses the legislator
incurred in traveling to Washington, D.C. on the local government’s behalf to
meet with the state’s Congressional representatives to lobby for federal
money for a local project.

That, for twelve months after a state public official leaves the official’s state
public office at a state agency, neither the official nor anyone working in
concert with the official or under the official’s direction, supervision, or
control, should appear before or negotiate with an officer or employee of the
agency acting in an official capacity.

An official of a school district who receives a gift from foreign dignitaries
visiting the district should treat the gift as given to the school district. The
school district may retain, sell or otherwise dispose of the item in accordance
with the school district’s policies and interests. This can include selling the
item to an official of the district.

(1) advises that the Ethics Code does not require an appointed official of a state agency toresign if the official runs for election to
public office; and (2) reaffirms the advice given in 1997 Wis Eth Bd 7.

1. You have asked about the propriety of an appointed official of a state
agency establishing a committee to explore running for election to public
office.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator not advocate for, or participate in
discussions, deliberations, or votes on funding a state contract with a
foundation in which the legislator’s spouse is executive director. If the
biennial budget appropriates money to the foundation, the legislator may
participate in debate, discussion, and voting on all other budget issues, and
vote on the budget itself.

The Ethics Code does not limit a legislator’s participation in the consideration
of a bill to limit fees chargeable for copies of health care records where the bill
does not affect the legislator’s personal interests nor the interests of a current
or future customer of the legislator’s business except to the extent it would
affect anyone who would want a copy of a patient's health care records.

A member of a state board should not participate in the consideration of
issues on which the member lobbies on his or her employer’s behalf or on
matters, which affect those issues. If conflicts arise only occasionally, they
may be satisfactorily addressed by abstaining, but when a conflict is
regularly occurring and substantial, the conflict’s cure can come only from the
board member divesting himself or herself of public position or of the private
interest that conflicts with public responsibilities.1

The person or persons on whose behalf a town attorney sought the Ethics
Board’s advice are entitled to keep the Board’s opinion confidential. Whether
the attorney directed the letter to the Ethics Board on half of the Town, or on
behalf of the Town’s chair, is a question of fact the Board cannot resolve.

The Ethics Board advises that §19.45 (8), Wisconsin Statutes, prohibits a
former state public official appearing as a paid representative of a private
entity before the agency to which the responsibilities of the official’s former
agency were transferred (1) until twelve months after the official has left
office on matters that involve applications, contracts, claims, or other quasijudicial
matters or proceedings under the official’s responsibility while the

The Ethics Board advises that a state public official may proceed with a plan
to have another solicit assistance for operation of the official’s agency to the
extent, but only to the extent, that the official could undertake the
solicitation directly. Whether directly or through another acting at the
official’s behest, the official may not solicit contributions of money, goods or
service either from a lobbyist or from an organization that employs a lobbyist

The Ethics Board advises that neither a state public official’s acceptance of
cards for distribution to the public that provide health care information nor
the company’s furnishing them to the state of Wisconsin will violate
Wisconsin’s Ethics Code for state officials. This transaction will not subject
the company to Wisconsin’s lobbying law or otherwise be considered a
lobbying expense.

The Ethics Board advises that a special purpose district reconsider its vote
because a commissioner who voted to distribute a large monetary refund to
original members of the district would be a recipient of that sum. In any new
vote on the same proposal, the commissioner who would receive the
distribution should abstain from any participation in discussion, debate, or
vote.

The Ethics Board advises that a town chair should not simultaneously
participate in Town decisions concerning services provided to the Town by a
company owned by the same individual that owns the company of which the
town chair is an employee.

The Ethics Board advises that in general, neither the Ethics Code nor
lobbying law restricts your employment in the circumstances you have
described. The only restrictions are (1) that you not receive any payment
from a lobbyist or from an organization that employs a lobbyist (including
the local governmental unit if it is a lobbying principal) (§13.625, Wisconsin
Statutes); (2) that you be able to demonstrate that you have not used the
prestige or resources of your office to obtain or to perform consulting work

The Ethics Board recommends that an official who is a member of a city’s
plan commission not simultaneously serve on the commission and solicit
more than insignificant contributions from individuals or entities that are
likely to become involved in matters that will be materially affected by
actions of the plan commission.

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official should pay a lobbying
organization on whose board of directors the official serves for any food, lodging,
or transportation the organization furnishes the official in connection
with serving on its board of directors. Because the official’s state agency
encourages its employees to participate in the organization’s activities,
routinely permits employees to participate in those activities without the
need to take leave time, and reimburses employees’ expenses for those

A legislator should not accept money from a private organization to affect the
laws of other states and simultaneously participate in legislative discussions,
consideration, or votes in Wisconsin on the same issues. The legislator may
cure the conflict between the private employment and governmental
responsibilities by forgoing one of those relationships. Short of eliminating
the conflict, the legislator may mitigate it by withdrawing from legislative
discussions, consideration, or votes on public policy issues in Wisconsin which

Neither the lobbying law nor Ethics Code will be an obstacle to state officials
taking advantage of the terms of the State of Wisconsin’s agreement with
Microsoft that provides state employees with discounts on the purchase of
computer products for home and personal use.

You have asked how a charitable Foundation may supplement the
salary of the Director of a state agency whose work the Foundation raises
funds to support. Supplementing the Director’s salary is precisely what the
Foundation should not do. Wisconsin Statutes declare as a felony a public
official’s or employee’s acceptance “for the performance of any service or duty
anything of value which the officer or employee knows is greater or less than

The Ethics Board advises that a member of the Village’s governing board
may participate in the consideration or decision about improvements the
village will make to the village’s sewage system and the financing of those
improvements as follows:

An employee of the Legislature should not solicit lobbyists or lobbying
organizations for contributions to a community organization on whose board
the employee sits. Nor should the employee use the status or prestige of
office to solicit contributions to the organization.

The Ethics Board advises that a state public official may serve as the
honorary chair of a charitable event sponsored by a lobbying principal for
which the official will receive no compensation and will pay the cost of dinner
and golf.

For state and local government officialsNeither a state public official nor a local public official should accept or
purchase a ticket or admission to an event or access to a loge, skybox,
or other premium area unless the official can clearly and convincingly
demonstrate that at least one of these conditions obtains:

(1) that local governmental officials should not accept free or discounted
admission to events at a facility owned by the local governmental unit;

(2) that, except as just stated, statutes administered by the Ethics Board
are not an obstacle to the facility’s oversight authority using, for the
conduct of official business, a conference room that looks out on events;

The Ethics Board advises that in the case of a local official who has been
elected to serve on the board of directors of a municipal mutual insurance
corporation by a government approved process, to represent the local
government’s interests on the board, §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes, does not bar
the official from participating in the local government’s consideration, discussion,
or votes to award a contract to or change government policy to permit
the purchase of services from the corporation.

(1) Consistent with statutes that the Ethics Board administers, a company
that employs a lobbyist in Wisconsin and its employee may honor a union
contract pre-dating the employee’s candidacy for election to state government
office, that provides for the company to credit an employee for up to two years
of seniority during an unpaid leave of absence permitted under the contract.

In the case of a county board supervisor who has been selected as a member
of an insurance company’s board of directors by the company’s organizer, the
supervisor should not participate in county board consideration, discussion,
or votes to award a contract to the company or to change county policy to
permit the purchase of services from the company.

(1) that a county board supervisor not participate in discussions or votes
about litigation strategy or whether or not the county should sue a business
with which the supervisor is associated and should absent himself or herself
from that portion of a meeting at which the matter is discussed;

The responsibility for the care and use of grant funds lies in the first instance
and primarily with the state agency that receives a grant. The agency’s
officials have broad discretion to identify the agency’s interests and the
means to further those interests.

1) Under §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes, the village trustee whose property
abuts the property that is the subject of the company’s rezoning
petition, and who is an employee of the company, should not participate
in discussion, debate, or votes on the petition;

For chairing a conference about state government issues, a state public
official may accept an award sanctioned, approved, endorsed by, and
presented under the auspices of the organization that is sponsoring the
conference but may not accept an award from another organization.

A legislator should not accept compensation from an organization that
employs a lobbyist even for services the legislator has provided to the
organization; and

In the case of two affiliated organizations, one employing a lobbyist and the
other not, a legislator may accept compensation for services from the latter
only if the organization can demonstrate that it acts independently of its
affiliate.

1) Consistent with laws it administers, a legislator may participate in a
charitable fundraising event that includes golf and a lunch of which the
primary beneficiaries are charities with which the legislator is not
associated; and

Neither the Ethics Code nor lobbying law appears to restrict a legislator’s
working as a consultant to a company that is a broker-dealer that assists
institutional money managers in identifying investment opportunities.

If a member of a village board participated in the village’s decision to hire
him to supervise a village project, then he should return the checks he has
received and not accept any payment for the services he has provided. If the
member of the village board abstained from participating in the village’s
earlier decision, then §19.59, Wisconsin Statutes, permits him to accept
payment for the services he has provided.

A legislator is free to commence a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a law
and to seek and retain legal counsel to represent himself or herself.

If a legislator wants to join an existing lawsuit, the Ethics Board recommends that
the legislator direct a letter to the Court asking that he or she be permitted to join
the plaintiffs as a party or as amicus curiae, representing himself or herself.

If a county’s contract with a union will provide a significant precedent for a
union contract in which a county board supervisor has a personal financial
interest, then the supervisor should not participate in negotiations,
discussions or votes on the former. If the effect of the county’s contract on the
contract covering the supervisor is merely conjectural or inconsequential, the
supervisor may participate in decisions concerning that contract.

An association is a lobbying principal subject to Wisconsin’s lobbying law if
(1) it reimburses a member for lost wages in connection with lobbying on the
association’s behalf and (2) the member communicates with state officials
other than the legislators from the member’s own district, on more than 4
days in a 6-month reporting period.

A lobbying principal may not, consistent with the lobbying law, reimburse its
members’ campaign contributions that are furnished at a time not permitted
to the principal.

A member of a state regulatory board should refrain from participating in
any discussions or decisions concerning educational and course requirements
for members of the profession regulated by the board while the official serves
as a consultant to an organization that sets generally accepted practice
standards for the profession and approves educational courses required by
many government bodies, and the official should not, in any way, use his or
her position to benefit the organization. If these restrictions materially

Wisconsin's lobbying law poses no restriction on a lobbyist representing
clients in negotiating a purchase of land to a state agency on a contingency
fee basis unless the matter is associated with adoption, modification, or
repeal of a rule or the Legislature’s consideration of an appropriation
earmarked for the purchase of the land at issue, or an agency’s development
of such a legislative proposal. OEB 92-21

The Ethics Board recommends that a village board member not participate in
official discussions, deliberations, and votes with respect to legislation
affecting his or her business unless the action affects a whole class of similarly
situated interests, the board member’s interest is insignificant when
compared to all affected interests, and the action’s effect on the board members’
private interest is neither significantly greater nor less than upon other
interests affected by the act.

Section 19.45, Wisconsin Statutes, does not prohibit a legislator from publicly
opposing a proposed private project or from representing a person before a
department if he or she receives no compensation therefore beyond the salary
and other compensation or reimbursement to which the legislator is entitled
by law, and neither the official, the official’s family or an associated
organization will financially benefit from the defeat of the proposal. OEB 92-
19

Statutes administered by the Ethics Board do not restrict a legislator’s service
as a member of a corporation’s board of directors, even for pay, as long as
the legislator is asked to serve for reasons independent of and unrelated to
holding state office. If the legislator is asked to serve because of membership
in the legislature, or if the corporation should employ a lobbyist at any time,
then the legislator may continue to serve but may not accept any fees or
compensation for the service. OEB 92-18

A law firm should not purchase meals for officials of the local units of government
the firm represents (nor should a local public official accept) unless,
and only to the extent that, the local government would otherwise bear the
official’s expense and the governmental units' obligation to bear the expense
is expressly authorized by, and in accordance with, established written
criteria. OEB 92-17

The time and expenses related to the lobbying activities of individuals
employed by companies that are members of a trade association that is a
principal should be recorded as follows:

(1) If the individuals are lobbying on the trade association's behalf, and under
its supervision or control, the trade association should account for their time
and the lobbying expenses that the association incurs;

The Board advises that statutes administered by the Ethics Board do not
prevent a state legislator from using legislative staff and facilities to communicate
with the news media about the legislator's lawsuits against the
State of Wisconsin concerning issues involving the operation of state
government. OEB 92-15

A candidate for elective state office may not accept anything of pecuniary
value, including salary or wages, from a business or organization that
employs a lobbyist. An individual employed by a principal may, consistent
with statutes administered by the Ethics Board, take a leave of absence from
his or her employment during the candidacy as long as the employer does not
furnish the candidate with any salary or other benefits that had not already
vested in the candidate prior to the candidacy.

A lobbying principal may, without violating laws administered by the Ethics
Board, operate a conduit on behalf of campaign contributors for making contributions
to partisan elective state officials or candidates for partisan elective
state office. A lobbyist may administer a conduit. The Ethics Board recommends
that someone other than a lobbyist sign and convey the check
provided to the candidate. OEB 92-13